Because you are in Orange County (likely in spirit if not in flesh), you no doubt highly value your personal and community security. Well, we hate to rattle the gates on your housing development, but here are two recent stories that explain why we are (mostly) all going to die horribly — and maybe in your lifetime! Enjoy!

1. It’s The End of the World As We Now Know It

Coming to you from Siberia (just like some of my own probable ancestry), it’s: a cat’s eye view of my nostril!

No, no — nothing that terrifying. (And it’s not a close up of a pore or anything else anatomical that you might be thinking.) It’s just a portent of the end of the world due to a massive acceleration in global warming. Specifically, to riff on Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime”:

This ain’t no sinkhole, this ain’t no space rock, this ain’t no fooling around.
No time to argue ’bout global warming, we ain’t got time for that now.

This Siberian crater has baffled scientists because if were a meteor crater that apparently deep the energy would not have been directed downward in such a comparatively narrow hole. (It’s around the diameter of a football field, but still.) It would spread out wide and more shallow, like a moon crater — or other craters, such as Crater Lake. It looks like it could be a sinkhole — but a sinkhole would not have a “lip” of raised dirt around it. Some have suggested that it might be a “pingo” — a special kind of geological swamp monster found in Australia — but if it were that sort of wet sinkhole it would have been filled with water. Scientists now give one of two possible explanations for it:

(1) Giant burrowing rodent, like a Hedgehog Godzilla, or
(2) The point from which a huge underground methane explosion burst through the earth’s surface.

Of these, the latter is far more likely, as I did not just make it up.

Anna Kurchatova from Sub-Arctic Scientific Research Centre thinks the crater was formed by a water, salt and gas mixture igniting an underground explosion, the result of global warming. She postulates that gas accumulated in ice mixed with sand beneath the surface, and that this was mixed with salt – some 10,000 years ago this area was a sea.

If Dr Kurchatova’s explanation is correct, the consequences are profound. It means that There are vertical structures where salt accumulated as methane ices formed in permafrost. Layers of permafrost may have salty vertical zones of weakness in them that will allow sudden release of methane trapped below the permafrost layer as the climate warms. Vast quantities of methane trapped in river deltas in the Arctic ocean on the Siberian shelf may be unstable. This crater appears to be evidence that the methane is not protected by a very slowly melting solid layer of permafrost. Methane bubbles recently observed in the Laptev Sea, reported on by the National Science Foundation, could be the beginning of the release of an enormous amount of subsea methane.

attribution: NSF

Methane is escaping from shallow subsea sediments on the Siberian platform. This National Science Foundation diagram shows Siberian platform methane bubbles rising to the surface and entering the atmosphere.

The concerns of a methane catastrophe expressed by scientists who have discovered large amounts methane escaping from the Laptev Sea may reinforced by this land based observation of methane instability in Siberian sediments of marine origin. Extraordinarily high methane levels were observed over the Laptev sea in fall 2013.

Methane is a much much more potent driver of global warming than is carbon dioxide. It’s down there in Siberia under a constant pressure — but when we heat things up here on the biosphere, melting loosens the “cap” put into the methane from above. And so it goes boom. Check out the link above for more cool graphics about how climate change projections just got worse.

2. Our Sun Just Shot at Us and Barely Missed!

Yes, the sun’s shooting a Coronal Mass Ejection at us happened two years ago — but it’s still news, because scientists have just found out how close we just came to being set back 120 years, a pre-electronic-circuit time for which we are currently (get it?) ill-prepared. Here’s the story from the Washington Post:

On July 23, 2012, the sun unleashed two massive clouds of plasma that barely missed a catastrophic encounter with the Earth’s atmosphere. These plasma clouds, known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), comprised a solar storm thought to be the most powerful in at least 150 years.

“If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” physicist Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado tells NASA.

Fortunately, the blast site of the CMEs was not directed at Earth. Had this event occurred a week earlier when the point of eruption was Earth-facing, a potentially disastrous outcome would have unfolded.

CME captured by NASA July 23, 2012 (NASA)

If you read the Post’s story (as well you should), you’ll see that this sort of event, which has a 12% likelihood of occurring over the next decade (unless those space scientists are just messing with us), would only bring about the end of “life as we know it.” That is, modern life — not all life. The power that we use for transportation, communication, agriculture, acquiring water — yes, including desal! — would be gone. Electric currents would lose their capacity — and, I expect, their capacitors. (Nyuk, Nyuk.) We would have to go back to playing board games — and without air conditioning, either.

The most comparable historical predecessor to this event is one that happened in 1859, documented by English astronomer Richard Carrington, who lent his name to what we now call a “Carrington Event.” This storm was at least as strong, but it missed. Its strength was in part due to a similar CME having traveled down the same pathway just a few days previously, clearing out the particles that could get in the way of maximum death and destruction and calamity.

On the bright side, it would be pretty:

During the Carrington event, the northern lights were seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii according to historical accounts. The solar eruption “caused global telegraph lines to spark, setting fire to some telegraph offices,” NASA notes.

And there is a more significant benefit as well, for those who worry about robots taking over the world. THIS IS WHY THEY NEED US AROUND! As in the wrongly maligned finale of Lost, they (mechanical rather than spiritual, same difference in this respect) would need to keep humans around, and smart and skilled enough, to reboot the system and get those robots back up and running just in case their shielding from massive CME attacks failed. And we would do it, too, because that’s the only way we’d get back our Internet! So, in an odd way, it is the threat of CMEs that will force the robots to take care of us, keep our schools in reasonably good shape, and instill a culture where we take basic steps to preserve our continued existence — steps like taking measures to combat global warming. (Or they could try to train apes and dolphins to do it, which might make even more sense.)

This is you Weekend Open Thread. Talk about that, or anything else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of decorum and discretion.

I’ve promised a new OC Register Dearthwatch for the past few weeks, without my workload dipping down to the point where I could put one together. So, this week I’m not going to promise you one — in the hopes that I will then do it. Enjoy your weekend!

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose worker's rights and government accountability attorney, residing in northwest Brea. General Counsel of CATER, the Coalition of Anaheim Taxpayers for Economic Responsibility, a non-partisan group of people sick of local corruption.
Deposed as Northern Vice Chair of DPOC in April 2014 when his anti-corruption and pro-consumer work in Anaheim infuriated the Building Trades and Teamsters in spring 2014, who then worked with the lawless and power-mad DPOC Chair to eliminate his internal oversight.
Occasionally runs for office to challenge some nasty incumbent who would otherwise run unopposed. (Someday he might pick a fight with the intent to win rather than just dent someone. You'll know it when you see it.) He got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012 and in 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002.
None of his pre-putsch writings ever spoke for the Democratic Party at the local, county, state, national, or galactic level, nor do they now.
A family member co-owns a business offering campaign treasurer services to Democratic candidates and the odd independent. He is very proud of her. He doesn't directly profit from her work and it doesn't affect his coverage. (He does not always favor her clients, though she might hesitate to take one that he truly hated.)
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)

*Gamma Rays and the Hulk….our great Green Menace…..who is willing to save the planet along with pounding the heck out of the greedy malapropisms of deceit. There is little doubt that Russia has serious problems which include: Chernobyl, the Asteroid Explosion and Vlade Putin. The truth of the matter is that “:everything is possible”…”Most things are Probable” and everything else cost someone money.

*”Smile when your heart is aching….don’t let the fear …get ever so near….and when you smile, just keep on saying…..that you know your praying………” Don’t forget your liberal funsters are the ones that came up with the Smiley Face Stickers and “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life!”

BigBoxOfRedWhine

Posted July 26, 2014 at 1:55 PM

Success has a thousand fathers,,,I thought the S.F. was from a bank or an Insurance company?

“The world is aflame and our leader is on the 14th green. The arc of history may indeed bend toward justice, Mr. President. But, as you say, the arc is long. The job of a leader is to shorten it, to intervene on behalf of “the fierce urgency of now.” Otherwise, why do we need a president? And why did you seek to become ours?”
Kraut hammer –

… “And just to add some context, these conservative dissemblers also fail to note that Obama has taken far fewer days off than his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama’s average of 21.5 vacation days per year makes him look like a workaholic compared to Bush’s 110 day average per year – more than five times Obama’s. But if you’re a rich white Republican you can’t be accused of being lazy or shiftless when you are enjoying some leisure time at your ranch in Crawford or on your yacht in Kennebunkport.”

And hey, you forgot to mention our REPUBLICAN HOUSE, the most do-nothing house in history and their work ethic or rather lack of it. From Occupy Democrats:

“Unbeknownst to much of the American public, House Republicans continue to shatter records not only for refusing to pass any bills, but also for refusing to come into work. While the American people struggle to emerge from the Bush Recession, they continue voting to give themselves vacation after vacation.

Adding insult to injury, they are planning only be in session for 113 days next year. They will be on vacation during the entire month of August, in session for only 10 days in September, and will only be working a measly two days during the month of October.

Of course, they will be expecting every penny of their $174,000 yearly salary, with wonderful benefits to boot. Incredibly, members of the House made over $1,400 for legislative day this year, and number that is expected to increase to $1,600 in 2014.”

There’s plenty to pick on the House for without trying to measure “productivity” in number of laws passed. Somebody was having a really slow day to write that one up. Like measuring a prosecutor’s productivity in number of convictions, regardless of whether anyone was actually guilty.

Oh you conservatives, always belly-aching and blaming Obama for not doing enough or taking vacations while we have problems, but just point to our LAZY, DO-NOTHING REPUBLICAN CONGRESS and then suddenly, doing nothing is a-okay.

HYPOCRITES!!!

skallywag

Posted July 26, 2014 at 12:01 PM

The last time I checked the dem controlled Senate is part of Congress.

Greg Diamond

Posted July 27, 2014 at 9:09 AM

Last time I checked, a car without an engine is still 95% of a car; it just won’t run.

With the House of Representatives essentially closing up shop, the car of governance is missing an engine. Obama’s still turning the key, but it hasn’t started in years.

Oh and by the way, your “mandate” was just so much gerrymandering. REPUBLICANS CAN’T WIN elections HONESTLY, that’s why they spend so much energy gerrymandering defeat-proof districts and doing everything they can to try and suppress the vote. Reality check … again: DEMOCRATS WON THE POPULAR VOTE IN 2012, so much for the will of the people.

From The NYTimes:
The Great Gerrymander of 2012
By SAM WANG
Published: February 2, 2013
HAVING the first modern democracy comes with bugs. Normally we would expect more seats in Congress to go to the political party that receives more votes, but the last election confounded expectations. Democrats received 1.4 million more votes for the House of Representatives, yet Republicans won control of the House by a 234 to 201 margin.

So, yes, gerrymandering gave the GOP an advantage. But that’s not the question before us. The question is whether Democrats would’ve controlled the U.S. House if the 2010 gerrymandering had never happened.

Now let’s assume the Democrats would’ve won every single one of those vulnerable seats mentioned by the Brennan Center. The GOP would still have a majority in the House of 223 to 212.

The House only needs a SIMPLE MAJORITY to pass a bill, the Senate needs a super-majority which the Dems don’t have. And since you Republi-thugs want Obama to fail more than you want the US to succeed nothing gets done!

TRAITORS AND HYPOCRITES!!!!

skallywag

Posted July 27, 2014 at 6:52 AM

“TRAITORS AND HYPOCRITES!!!!”

really? ……. I guess that makes US voters traitors & hypocrites as well, for voting in this class of legislators. We’ll see what you have to say about the Senate when the Repubs are in the majority next year.

No, just the REPUBLICANS who want to see Obama fail MORE than they want their country to succeed.

From the DailyKos:

“On January 20, 2009 Republican Leaders in Congress literally plotted to sabotage and undermine U.S. Economy during President Obama’s Inauguration.

In Robert Draper’s book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives” Draper wrote that during a four hour, “invitation only” meeting with GOP Hate-Propaganda Minister, Frank Luntz, the below listed Senior GOP Law Writers literally plotted to sabotage, undermine and destroy America’s Economy. …

… Two months after their covert meeting where they plotted to sabotage the US Economy, in March 2009, Rep. Pete Sessions said Republicans should follow the model of the Taliban in its battles against President Obama.

In the March 2009 interview with National Journal Rep Sessions said:

“Taliban Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. Insurgency is the way they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. And these Taliban — is an example of how you go about to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that Insurgency may be required when [dealing with] the other side”
~Rep Pete Sessions, March 2009 to National Journal …

…. Also, at their meeting they plotted to suddenly stop supporting any Stimulus Legislation, even though, they all supported Bush/Cheney Stimulus legislation.
At the meeting, Rep Kevin McCarthy said,
“We’ve gotta challenge them on every single bill.”
“Show united and unyielding opposition to the president’s economic policies.” ….

The world is suddenly aflame? Seems like the same effed up old place it always was.

And a lot of the trouble has been caused by the policies of people Krauthammer no doubt admires.

I will say this, though. Obama is a failure; following a failure following a failure following a failure…

Jeez this is tedious.

BigBoxOfRedWhine

Posted July 26, 2014 at 2:01 PM

AMEN. This has all the utility of two surgeons arguing whose mistake will cause the patient’s impending death. Somehow, hope must spring eternal that if TWO wrongs can’t make a right, that THIRD one oughta do it FOR SURE! Futile waste of precious time, but hey, nobody’s steering, so enjoy the ride!

anon

Posted July 26, 2014 at 2:51 PM

Really? All those Presidents are failures to the same degree? They’re all simply flat-out failures…end of story?

I guess when you see things like this so simplistically, it WOULD get tedious.

David Zenger

Posted July 26, 2014 at 5:27 PM

The response was to the issue of the world being aflame – i.e. presumably the topic is foreign policy – please try to read better.

Yes, I contend that the foreign policies of Obama, Bush II, Clinton and Bush I have all been risky, wasteful, costly misdirections of resources; in other words a failure. As a nation we are no better off than we were 22 years ago, demonstrably worse given the amount of national wealth (uniformly squandered by all) pitched in to rat holes like Iraq and Afghanistan. In the meantime the War on Terror, a war that our own foreign policy helped create and enemies we still create, is used by people like Bush and Obama to wage a subtle war on the rights of Americans.

Yes it is tedious.

Unlike you, I am not burdened by a partisan urge to defend the indefensible action just because the perpetrator is a Democrat.

anon

Posted July 26, 2014 at 10:37 PM

Where did I defend the indefensible?

So Krauthammer and his ilk are responsible for “a lot of the trouble” with regard to foreign policy, yet President Obama bears equal responsibility for where we stand today. Interesting.

By the way, that’s not a partisan defense of Obama, despite your feeble effort to characterize it as such. It’s a simple observation of objective the reality that you’ve created a false equivalency with regard to those 4 Presidents and their foreign policy records.

Given the pile of shit that Krauthammer, Bush II, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, et al, left for the current President, I’d say Obama has done a fairly (not spectacularly) admirable job of getting us un-entangled/keep us from further entanglements…all at a time where we don’t have the money for more Krauthammer-style adventures.

Am I the only one who sees the irony in Mimi Walter’s staffer Cecilia Iglesias filing a formal compliant with the State for violating residency requirements against “Sherry Walker” the opponent who beat her in the primary?

Prez. Obama has made a lot of mistakes…BUT he did not cause the problems we face OR the problems in other countries. It’s so easy to blame him for everything. This may be breaking news for some…but America is no longer numero uno on the world stage… we haven’t been for years.. our media just likes to convince us we are.

I really do want to believe that people like Obama ran for office to be a public servant but something happens to them when they reach Washington D.C. They have so many people blowing smoke up their asses and telling them how great they are… they forget why they wanted the position in the first place… they become legends in their own minds. They become disconnected to the citizens they promised to represent and now serve corporations and the elite.

This isn’t just happening here in the US…its a global problem… it’s the age old battle of the rich against the poor. If you think about it, we face the same problems we did since I was a kid and probably before that. We don’t have kings and queens but we treat our government representatives and celebrities like they are. Americans no longer ask tough questions. Politics has become theater. Speech writers write to dazzle the listeners. The next time you hear Obama or some other gov. rep give a speech…listen for the rhythm. They sound like lyrics to a song.

I don’t know why anyone would want the job of WH Press Secretary (it should be renamed the office of “spin”) Its so obvious they are trying to sell us a load of crap and the press is no better…they refuse to ask the tough questions. They refuse to ask “why?” things are the way they are.

Mainstream media are now cheerleaders for their teams (R or D) they want to win. They forget their job is to find the truth.

And groups that seems to want change refuse to work together…I’m talking Occupy here… nothing but infighting and power grabbing from those who claim to want no leaders. I thought they would change things but they turned out to be just another disappointment.

I think the problem is a human behavior one. The oppressed become the oppressors. They become corrupted. And who suffers? The planet and those who never had power in the first place…the kids.

It is our responsibility as adults to ensure a healthy environment for future generations. I look at little kids today and wonder what legacy my generation will leave for them.

This mess we are in today is my fault. It’s your fault. It’s all our faults because we refuse to work together to find a solution. But there is no fun in that. It’s more fun to get sucked into the drama.

David, do you really believe one person can fix the mess in other countries? He is human, just like you and me. Our policies are what screwed up these countries. All that regime change did nothing but create more chaos.

I do not care for Obama either. He has done plenty right here in America to irritate me but he has become a “scapegoat” for all the world’s problems.

If you believe the man who sits in the White House (no matter which party he is with) is in charge, I have a lovely, slightly used car to sell you. Our government has been hijacked by corporate rule a long time ago. Wall Street, Big Pharma, biotech and the war machine call the shots now.

The problem I expected Obama to fix (or at least try) was getting us OUT of the messes created by Bush, Clinton, Bush etc. caused mostly by our completely counterproductive (from a national standpoint) Middle East policy. I know I expected too much.

True Obama hasn’t invaded anybody (yet, although I think he claim close in Syria until Putin did an end run around him), but he also has spent more hundreds of billions in Iraq and Afghanistan during his six years, all charged on your grandkids credit card.

anon

Posted July 27, 2014 at 8:28 AM

And what chance do you think there would have been of Congress, the moment Obama took office, agreeing to flip a switch and immediately disentangle ourselves from the Middle East?

Moreover, would that have been sound military strategy?

We’re out of Iraq, we’ll soon be out of Afghanistan and we haven’t invaded more countries. The people you should be railing against are the John McCains and Lyndsey Grahams of the world…every time they piss and moan that we need to be “doing more.”

“Obama has been in charge for six years and has done nothing except provide W’s third and fourth term.”

Pleasant as it must have been to flex your cynicism gland and squeeze that one out, it is foofarew. We’d have gone to war with Iran at the least, probably with other countries as well. And in terms of domestic policy — come on, sir….

Do you mean domestic policy like, “Patriot” Act…..Renewed,…..NSA Domestic Surveillance……Expanded…….Gutting of SEC Investigation / Enforcement…Continued…..Fed QE/ZIRP…..perpetual…and the Bankster fines that are a REPLACEMENT for prosecution, NOT a RESULT of it…? Yes, participation of Congress, but WITHOUT vetoes, or the loudly proclaimed “Executive Order” brandishment evident elsewhere-

David Zenger

Posted July 27, 2014 at 1:16 PM

BBORW, thanks for saving me the trouble of a response.

As far as Iran is concerned, we will not attack them. Israel will. And then we will rally ’round the star, boys.

Greg Diamond

Posted July 27, 2014 at 4:59 PM

For the purposes of this conversation (the Iran part), do we pretend that because you predict it, your prediction is correct, and I must bow in your direction? I know that you plan to pretend that that’s so, but I’m not really feeling it.

I’ll work on giving you something to reply. BigBox is about half-right, but context beckons, you know?

anon

Posted July 27, 2014 at 2:21 PM

“As far as Iran is concerned, we will not attack them. Israel will. And then we will rally ’round the star, boys.”

I think that’s a plausible scenario as long as Obama is President. But if a Republican were President, and Israel attacked Iran, do you seriously think that the John McCains and Lyndsey Grahams of the world are going to sit idly by while Israel has all the “fun”?

Bomb, bomb, bomb…bomb, bomb Iran!

Greg Diamond

Posted July 27, 2014 at 5:29 PM

OK, let’s break that down:

(1) USA PATRIOT Act: Renewed, yes, but there was probably a veto-proof majority favoring it. Domestic national security policy has much more in common with foreign policy than with domestic economic or social policy. I do fault Obama from some of the stuff that Elena Kagan argued for as Solicitor General.

(2) NSA Domestic Surveillance: I’m not sure if we know whether it was expanded or whether it was already bigger than we had known in 2008. But yes, I do find this disappointing — although is it really Bush’s fourth term in that respect or Reagan’s ninth? (Or Nixon’s 12th?) Have we really had successful pushback against this since the Ford Administration, when the Church Commission report came out (although the Pike Commission report got spiked)?

(3) SEC Investigation and Enforcement have improved. Mary Jo White (declaration of interest — with whom I worked in private practice in NYC) has been improving things, and whatever else I might think about Obama, his continued support and promotion of Liz Warren has been impressive. You would have seen nothing of the kind under GWB.

(4) Fed QE: He had to dig out of a veritable mountain of offal left to him by the prior administration — and nobody really knew how to do it. Furthermore, any misstep was loudly prophesied (largely by right-wing corporatists) to lead to the destruction of the economy on his watch. I have many complaints about Obama’s policy on this regard (mainly having to do with your next point), but I also have no doubt that Bush would have done far worse.

Obama did cede a lot of ground, but at least he put up a fight some of the time and did not accede to the maximalist demands of Wall Street — which is why they mostly opposed his re-election. Bush’s 3rd term? Compared to what I’d LIKE to have seen, sure; compared to what it would have been under a McCain or — gack! — Romney Presidency, no way.

(5) “Nobody goes to jail” — yes, huge problem, though the failure to prosecute problem is one that Liz Warren and MJ White are at least starting to address. On the other hand, you’re talking about taking on a huge and powerful constituency here, far more than has been the case in the past, and there needed to be support from all sides to make it happen. The better class of Dems (aka my peeps) have been willing; other Dems and most non-Paulite Republicans have not. Obama keeps getting roadblocks tossed in front of him (as with the CPRB), which would have happened to a Republican, because they wouldn’t have made progress (and in Romney’s case would have regressed at top speed.)

Obama has used fewer executive orders than pretty much any recent President — and he has done so under more desperate circumstances and under unprecedented use of vetos and other non-cooperation. To the extent that it’s Bush’s 3rd/4th term, it’s largely not of his own doing. It’s that his fat and happy opposition has the luxury of watching the country play a game of political chicken from which their own hoards, parked overseas, are safely protected.

Laying this all on Obama is intellectually lazy — all the more so when one lambastes the only strategy available to him to circumvent Congressional obstructionism.

*We can’t wait till DZ gets to make comments about President Hillary over the next 10 years…….that should really be attractive…….eh? So Dave boy, when you get to make your first appearance on Fareed Zacharia…be sure to let us know about it, so we can call all your friends….OK…both of them then!

Americans are so down on President Obama at the moment that, if they could do the 2012 election all over again, they’d overwhelmingly back the former Massachusetts governor’s bid. That’s just one finding in a brutal CNN poll, released Sunday, which shows Romney topping Obama in a re-election rematch by a whopping nine-point margin, 53 percent to 44 percent. That’s an even larger spread than CNN found in November, when a survey had Romney winning a redo 49 percent to 45 percent.

– But we never liked him as soon as his brother Billy got involved. Billy
Beer? Please! Old Gringo from Arizona and Primo from Hawaii….aren’t
even that bad! Remember before the election in the summer of ’80
when all the talk was that the Russians were going to invade HB? He
had allowed several USSR Military warships within the three mile limit
on both the east and west coasts….of the US of A!